Hong Kong Cultural Celebrations

Come to Hong Kong during spring and you will encounter four festivals, with hundreds of performers, thousands of years of traditions, hundreds of thousands of incense sticks and who knows how many buns!

Whether you’re following the sounds of rousing gongs and drums, watching locals commemorating the birthdays of Tin Hau, Buddha and Tam Kung, or cheering on competitors scrambling up a tower of buns at the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, this is a great time to soak up the energy, tradition and passion that comprise the very soul of Hong Kong.

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Date:

29 April to 15 May 2016 (to be confirmed)

Tin Hau’s Birthday falls on the 23rd day of the third lunar month.

Hong Kong’s maritime heritage ensures that Tin Hau, Goddess of the Sea and patron saint of fishermen, has a strong and loyal following here. On her birthday, locals flock to the more than 70 temples dedicated to her in Hong Kong to pray for safety, security, fine weather and full fishing nets during the coming year. So enduring is the reverence for Tin Hau in Hong Kong that this festival is even celebrated by many young people who are more likely to catch a fish in a seafood restaurant than on a trawler.

In Shap Pat Heung in Yuen Long, there is a colourful parade of fa pau (floral wreaths), lion dances and a fa pau raffle. There are also celebrations in Joss House Bay, where the oldest Tin Hau Temple in Hong Kong is located.

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One of the highlights of the Tin Hau festivities is the procession in Shap Pat Heung (which means 18 villages in Cantonese) in Yuen Long. The three-hour parade features nearly 30 fa pau groups, lion dancers, as well as dancing groups and marching bands from different local schools.

How to get there

MTR Yuen Long Station, Exit F. Walk through the Sun Yuen Long Centre and along the footbridge to Fung Cheung Road (approx. 10-minute walk).

Click the picture below to see how a floral wreath is made

Fa Pau Raffle
The raffling of fa pau, or floral wreaths, depicting Tin Hau is an indispensible part of the Shap Pat Heung Tin Hau festivities. Villagers believe that whoever wins the fa pau gains good fortune and protection in the coming year. In olden times, the fa pau were attached to rockets and fired into the air. Young men from different villages would fight to get the biggest chunks. Today, it is a more sedate affair, with a raffle being held to decide which village takes home the wreaths. One particular floral wreath, the Ding Choy Pau (wreath of fortune and fertility), is especially sought after by villagers as it is believed the winning village will be blessed with good fortune and fertility.

The Yuen Long area is rich in cultural attractions. Be sure to check out the Tai Shu Ha Tin Hau Temple, the Tai Wong Temple, Pat Heung Old Temple and the Ping Shan Heritage Trail after enjoying the parade.

Every year the Tin Hau Festival attracts thousands of worshippers to the Tin Hau Temple in Joss House Bay, the oldest in Hong Kong. With its history and magnificent architecture, it is listed as a Grade 1 Historic Building. After worshipping in the main temple, visitors can touch the dragon bed in the side temple for good luck, and head to the Rock Inscription at Joss House Bay, a Declared Monument, to learn about the temple’s history.

How to get there

MTR Po Lam Station, Exit A2, take minibus 16 (Po Lam to Po Toi O) to The Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club, then follow the signs and walk for about 10 minutes down the nearby steps

When it comes to evoking the mystery and charm of ancient China, few art forms can compare to Chinese opera, with its kaleidoscopic costumes, distinctive falsetto singing punctuated by gongs, and intricate gestures rich with symbolism.

During festivals, Chinese operas are performed outdoors on stages constructed of bamboo which are themselves unique works of construction. Bamboo theatres vary in size and capacity and are built on land, slopes and even on water. Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world where you can still find this kind of venue and enjoy festive, local entertainment as it has been performed and experienced throughout the ages.

The performances here are usually Cantonese opera, a genre of Chinese traditional theatre popular in Guangdong province and Hong Kong. It was included in UNESCO’s ‘Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ in 2009.

The Cheung Chau Bun Festival falls on the fifth to the ninth days of the fourth lunar month.

Every year, the people of Cheung Chau get busy making papier-mâché effigies of deities, preparing costumes, baking buns and building a bamboo tower. They’re preparing for the thousands of people that will soon descend upon their tiny island for what Time.com deemed one of the world's 'Top 10 Quirky Local Festivals'.

It all started with a plague that devastated Cheung Chau in the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911). The islanders built an altar in front of the Pak Tai Temple and petitioned the god Pak Tai to drive off the evil spirits besieging the island, while parading statues of deities through the narrow lanes of their village. The plague ended after the performance of these Taoist rituals and 100 years later the rituals are still performed in a festival that is listed as an intangible part of China’s cultural heritage.

For the locals, this is the continuation of their customs. The islanders have a strong sense of community and those who have left to work elsewhere will return for this celebration. For the thousands who crowd the ferry boats to the erstwhile pirate haven, this is the spectacular Cheung Chau Bun Festival. The weeklong event includes Taoist ceremonies and music, a parade, lion dances, drum beating and an exciting Bun Scrambling Competition involving a tower of buns.

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The highlight of the festival is the Piu Sik (Floating Colours) Parade. This dramatic reenactment of the ceremonial parade held to drive away a plague a century ago sees young children, dressed in the guises of traditional deities and modern celebrities, balance on poles and accompanied by gongs and lion dancers, appearing to float above the crowds in a carnival-like procession.

Finally, as night falls, the moment everyone has been waiting for arrives. Opposite the Pak Tai Temple, competitors stand poised at the bottom of an enormous bamboo tower studded with imitation buns. On the signal, they scramble up it and try to collect as many ‘lucky’ buns as possible. The higher the buns, the more points they are worth. The King and Queen of the Buns titles are up for grabs again!

The Birthday of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism), also called the Buddha Bathing Festival, is one of the most spiritual and unique festivals celebrated in Hong Kong.

According to legend, nine dragons sprayed water to bathe the baby Buddha at birth. To commemorate this, at Buddhist temples across the city, devotees gather to pay their respects to this revered deity by bathing statues of him in bowls of water. The ritual is believed to aid in the purification of one’s soul. One of the grandest ceremonies is held at the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island, home of the Big Buddha.

Before and after the Birthday of Buddha, celebrants also eat special green cookies – and if these sound unappetising, that’s because they are. These cookies are deliberately quite bitter, as eating them represents passing through hardship to enjoy better things.

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Date:

14 May 2016

Tam Kung’s Birthday falls on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month.

Like Tin Hau, the Goddess of the Sea, Tam Kung is revered amongst fishermen and coastal communities; however, the worship of this deity is unique to Hong Kong. Born in the Huizhou prefecture in Guangdong province during the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), Tam Kung was capable of forecasting the weather and healing the ill when he was a child. His statue is usually portrayed as an 80-year-old man with the face of a 12-year-old child because he is believed to have achieved wisdom at a young age and learned the secret of remaining forever young.

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One of the principal events of this festival takes place at the most impressive and oldest Tam Kung temple, which is located in Shau Kei Wan.

This temple was built in 1905 and was reconstructed in 2002, with the original design carefully preserved. Inside you’ll find an iron bell and a stone tablet that date back to the construction of the temple. There are also models of a wooden junk and dragon boat. It is believed that the boulder in front of the temple bears the seal of Tam Kung. Here, every year, devotees mark his birthday with an array of ceremonies, including traditional dragon and lion dances and a street parade.

How to get there

MTR Shau Kei Wan Station, Exit C and follow Shau Kei Wan Main Street East and walk for about five minutes to Tam Kung Temple.